Z-Wave Making a Move for Home Energy Networking?

Does Z-Wave stand a chance against ZigBee in the home energy management space? No way, ZigBee boosters say — their standard-based technology has a clear lead in U.S. smart meter-home area network plans, with tens of millions of chips and modules being made by multiple vendors for dozens of device partners.

One thing working against Z-Wave is that it’s a proprietary technology with chips made by a single vendor. Sure, it may have members including ADT, Black & Decker, Danfoss, Leviton and Ingersoll Rand. But the ZigBee Alliance has all the big smart grid companies and utilities on board — as well as GE, which just recently named ZigBee its favorite wireless technology for its smart appliance and home energy networking plans.

Japan’s government requires home automation systems to run at frequencies of under 1 gigahertz, which fits Z-Wave in the 900 megahertz range but doesn’t match ZigBee at 2.4 gigahertz, Weissman noted. That could make Japan a big Z-Wave market — unless Wi-Fi in the home takes over that primary function for home networking.

In early December, Motorola bought Z-Wave Alliance member 4Home, a startup that has worked with Verizon and other partners in a host of home energy management configurations. Could it be a preparatory move to work with Verizon’s Z-Wave home strategy?

Comparing ZigBee to Z-Wave does bring up an interesting contrasts. While ZigBee is king in the emerging field of energy management networking, Z-Wave has the lead in overall home automation products on the market, with about 250, compared to ZigBee’s 100 certified devices. In fact, behind its lead in home energy management, ZigBee’s second largest market is in industrial sensors — far from the home.